House of the Week
House of the Week: Federal Hill villa holds a tasty touch of Tusccany
01:00 AM EST on Saturday, February 16, 2008
Federal Hill, known as Providence’s Little Italy, features a replica of a villa you might see in Italy.
This one-bedroom brick building, circa 1900, is nestled next to Hotel Dolce Villa on De Pasquale Square and diagonally across the street from Caserta Pizzeria on Spruce Street. It has two roomy 1,200-square-foot courtyards, which boasted European ambiance.
Its current owner, restaurateur Gianfranco Marrocco, said that when the previous owner, a tax lawyer, took charge of renovating the house, at 14 Crout St., he told the architect, “I want to wake up every morning and feel like I’m in Tuscany.”
The architect delivered.
In addition to the dwelling’s courtyards, enclosed by high brick walls, it offered elaborate tile designs, eye-catchy woodwork, terra cotta roof and a restaurant-style professional kitchen on the second floor. “It was his bachelor pad,” said Marrocco, who owns Federal Hill’s Mediteranneo, Geppetto Grilled Pizzeria and the Hotel Dolce Villa. “Upstairs, he’d have the guys over for poker games.”
The one-bedroom, more then 1,800-square-foot dwelling, is offered at $795,900. Marrocco, who had lived there, currently uses it as a suite for the Hotel Dolce Villa. He’s planning on moving to the suburbs.
The home, once a horse stable, offers a brick-and-wood theme on the inside and outside. Surrounded on all four sides by high brick walls, its street entrance opens into a partially roofed spacious courtyard.
The patio contained a koi pond and a tile floor. “I have enough room to entertain more than 100 guests comfortably,” added Marrocco.
“We’ve had lots of parties out here,” he noted. “It’s a great house for entertaining.”
The pièce de résistance exists on the second floor, and it’s the kitchen. “The appliances are all commercial grade,” he said.
It’s what you might find in a restaurant, and boasts a brick-enclosed rotisserie with a copper top and copper hood. It has a 10-burner Vulcan stove with a convection oven.
In addition, Corian covers the counters. There are three sinks, a double-drawer dishwasher, and a separate freezer and refrigerator. Included are two tiers of cabinets above the counters and a block of them underneath.
The kitchen, which is on the top floor of the house, had the home’s signature exposed dark-wood beams, brick walls and wood-paneled ceilings. It flowed into the livingroom/diningroom area, which has lots of brick, a fireplace, wood floors, and molding enriched with a rope motif.
A half-bath is made of tiny tiles imported from Italy. The intricate design looked like a mosaic created by an artist. In addition, the room has a stand-alone art-deco red sink.
“This bathroom is so ahead of its time,” Marrocco noted. “They are just showing these kinds of fixtures and sinks in America now. It’s a look that has been very popular in Europe for a while.”
Sliding glass doors lead to a terrace on the Spruce Street side of the house. It offers views of the city.
Stairs with a wrought-iron banister lead to another bricked-in courtyard with a covered circular enclosure once used to store a barbecue.
“In the summer, the ivy grows all over the walls. It turns everything green,” he added. “When you sit out here, you feel like you are in Tuscany.”
The home’s ground floor features a den with brick walls, wood floors, brick-enclosed fireplace and high ceilings of exposed wood beams and paneling. Built-in bookcases on either side of the fireplace still house the previous owner’s tax-law books. A closet in the den is where the electrical equipment and gas furnace are stored.
A brick archway connects the den to the master bedroom where the wide molding with the rope design, which existed throughout the second floor, is prevalent in both ground-floor rooms. The blue-and-gray intricately designed Italian tile work, similar to the half-bath upstairs, exist in the full bathroom with a similar art deco sink but in black. Included just outside the full bathroom’s door inside the bedroom is a Jacuzzi.
The one-bedroom home on Federal Hill, is listed at $795,900. The taxes for 14 Crout St., Providence, are $4,847, and it has gas heat. Ed Manfredi, of Abbott Properties, (401) 732-0011, ext. 227, www.EdManfredi.com, has the listing. A different House of the Week appears each Saturday in the projoHomes section of The Providence Journal. The feature tells the story of the house and the people who have lived in it. If you would like us to consider a house for sale as a subject of this news feature, send a photo, information about the house and why it is of interest, to Faye Zuckerman, real estate writer, 75 Fountain St., Providence, RI 02902; fax (401) 277-8250; or e-mail pjhomes@projo.com. For more information, call (401) 277-7333.
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